A Casual Look at Raiding

I know not everyone will agree, but for me, Looking for Raid and the upcoming Real ID (and maybe Battle Tag) raiding have been outstanding additions to the game. The first change allows those of us who aren’t progression raiders or even raiders at all to actually see the end game content. This opens up a whole new part of the game to a large portion of the games population.

I think this will only help the growth of the game. By allowing more players chances to see more portions of the game, you are giving them more reason to play.

Looking for Raid has started this and for all it’s faults it is still a good system. There will always be complaints about the way some people handle things within the LFR system, but I haven’t really seen much difference from what I’ve seen in server wide pugs.

I think Real ID (and hopefully Battle Tag) Raids will bring it to the next level. This will allow people who don’t currently game together but are friends outside of the game, to get together and experience the raids together. I will caveat this with a hope that they just leave this function for old raids and not for the current tier. I think opening it up to the current tier would jeopardize the guild raiding aspect of the current game.

Personally I am enjoying LFR and have run it already on 8 of my 10 85’s. Sometimes I have a good group, sometimes a bad, but I always have fun. And I’m looking forward to Real ID raids so that I can take my main and run with my brothers and niece as well as any of my friends.

Having previously fallen in to the hardcore raiding category followed up by massive real life crits (getting married, more time required at work etc) I’ve found that LFR has been a blessing for me. I’m looking forward to the addition of lower tires :)

I’m really excited for Battle ID, too! I love that Real ID lets me play with real life friends who are spread out across several realms, but Battle ID will be what allows me to easily play with all of the awesome bloggers and Twitter-people I’ve met over the last few years. We’re not close enough that I’d feel comfortable saying, “Hey – what’s your real name … I promise I’m not a creepy stalker!” So Battle ID will be the perfect compromise.

I also love LFR :D I run it weekly on 3 toons (although currently my alts are way more geared than my main, haha) and sometimes run one of my bf’s toons if he has to work. I love LFR. As you said, you have bad groups and good groups but in the end it’s always a blast :) I’m excited for the battle tag system and can not wait for it to come out.